Obama Seeks Nearly $4B to Deal With Child Immigrants

posted by John Johnson, Newser Staff
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2 years ago

(NEWSER) – The White House had been kicking around the idea of requesting $2 billion to deal with the unprecedented wave of underage immigrants arriving from Central America. Today, in a sign of just how fast the crisis is escalating, it made a formal request to Congress for nearly twice that amount, reports the Washington Post. The $3.7 billion would be divvied up among various agencies with a two-pronged goal: to speed up the deportation process while making sure that the kids get adequate health care in detention centers in the interim. Among other things, the money would be used to send more immigration judges to the border, build more holding centers, and beef up border-security patrols.